Injuries have hampered City’s season but their manager will stand by his principles of working with a streamlined group.
Pep Guardiola says he could not bear to leave ‘five or six players in the freezer’ (Martin Rickett/PA)open image in gallery
Pep Guardiola says he could not bear to leave ‘five or six players in the freezer’ (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Wire)
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Pep Guardiola claimed he could quit as Manchester City boss if he is given too big a squad next season because he cannot bear to leave a large number of fit players out.
City will go into the summer looking to rebuild an ageing team, with several senior players candidates to follow Kevin De Bruyne out of the door after the Belgian played his final City home game in Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Bournemouth.
After a season when injuries have hit City hard and the pressure of the fixture schedule only continues to grow, getting the right balance of numbers looks a difficult one but Guardiola – who has always preferred using a smaller group – said keeping things tight remained a priority for him.
“I said to the club I don’t want that (a bigger squad),” Guardiola said. “I don’t want to leave five or six players in the freezer. I don’t want that. I will quit. Make a shorter squad, I will stay.
“It’s impossible for my soul to (tell) my players in the tribune that they cannot play.
“Now it happened to add players immediately. Maybe for three or four months we couldn’t select 11 players, we didn’t have defenders, it was so difficult. After, people come back but next season it cannot be like that.
“As a manager I cannot train 24 players and every time I select I have to have four, five, six, stay in Manchester at home because they cannot play. This is not going to happen. I said to the club I don’t want that.”
Despite the injury problems suffered this season – most notably the long-term absence of Rodri, who made his first appearance since September as a second-half substitute on Tuesday night – Guardiola said he would rather make up the numbers with academy players.
His assertion means City will have to trim numbers before bringing in any new faces in the next transfer window.
“If I have injuries, unlucky, we have some players for the academy and we do it,” he said.
“(We) cannot sustain for the emotion of the club, the soul of the team, (to) create another connection with each other that this season we lost it a bit.”
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City needed to win on Tuesday to keep their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League in their own hands, and a draw at Fulham on Sunday should now be enough to make sure.
Omar Marmoush opened the scoring with an outstanding strike and although De Bruyne missed an open goal, Bernardo Silva doubled the lead before the break.
After City’s Mateo Kovacic and Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook saw red in quick succession, Nico Gonzalez got a late third for City before Daniel Jebbison’s stoppage-time consolation goal.